When your baby starts showing pre-crawling signs, the next thing you should start doing is finding how to encourage baby to crawl.
Even if your baby hasn’t started showing pre-crawling styles like rocking back and forth, grasping things, trying to reach something nearby, it is essential to encourage your baby to crawl to help him train the muscles and spur him to start crawling quickly.
Below I list ten steps to follow on how to encourage a baby to crawl. But before we go through these steps on how to encourage a baby to crawl let’s see when babies start crawling.
When Do Babies Start Crawling?
If this question has been at the back of your mind, then you’re in the right place. Most Babies start crawling from 9 months through 10. Though some babies can start from around 6 to 7 months.
Some babies take their time and may not even begin crawling by nine months. Others skip the crawling stage altogether; they move from sitting to standing, then walking.
Before a baby starts crawling, you should expect some pre-crawling signs like sitting, trying to push forward, grasping things firmly, etc. Before a baby crawls, he should have passed through the stages of sitting before crawling.
Physical Therapy To Help Babies Crawl
if you like to be involved in every stage of your kid’s life and want to help your baby crawl, here are some physical activities you can use to spur them to crawl:
1. Do plenty of tummy time. This helps a lot to strengthen the baby’s muscles
2. Create a tunnel with pillows. As they wade through, they would build and strengthen their muscles
3. Let them reach out for things nearby, allowing them to stretch a little bit before giving them.
4. Position your child on all fours
5. Place your child in a standing position and imitate walking with the child
How To Encourage Babies To Crawl From Sitting
When your baby can sit with support and then without support, it helps the baby strengthen back muscles for crawling.
From the sitting position, your child will start showing signs like learning how to rock back and forth, lie on the tummy and sit back up, and start figuring out how to slide on and crawl.
You can encourage a baby to crawl from sitting by
1. Making the baby practice sitting from early on
2. Allowing the baby to reach out for things by stretching
3. Taking the baby off supportive devices like strollers, high chairs, etc.
Activities To Get Baby Crawling
Below are some activities you can try out to get your baby crawling when he starts showing signs of crawling
1. Give your baby a massage
2. Tummy time
3. Dangle colorful objects on your baby’s face to get him to reach out for them
4. Place him in front of a mirror.
5. Place objects around your child but not too close that he can reach for
6. Use pillows to create a tunnel that he can wade through.
Position your child on all fours.
Precautions To Take When Teaching Your Baby To Crawl
In order for you to keep your little one safe, you need to be extra careful when your baby is on all fours. Below are some precautions to ensure that your baby is kept safe.
1. Wear Appropriate Clothing
You will need to wear protective garments for your baby on your baby kneel. A baby onesie can do or wear stretchy leggings or pants.
If it’s hot, you can wear a knee cover on the knee. These will help protect the knees from scratch, help your baby keep pace, feel less discomfort, etc.
2. Baby Proof The Home
It would be best to start thinking of babyproofing once you intend to have a child. Especially when your child starts getting mobile.
Remove anything that can cause potential hazards for you and your baby, like breakable decorations, wire outlets, chemicals lying around the home, etc., and restructure your home.
3. Help Your Child Learn How To Use The Stairs
Now that you are teaching your child to crawl, it is essential to teach them how to use the stairs.
The floor is solid and level, and your child may quickly learn how to crawl easily on the floor, but learning how to crawl on the stairs is a whole new teaching process.
So, to avoid an accident, how to encourage your baby to crawl is to ensure that you put him to crawl both on the ground and the stairs.
Place gates a few steps upwards. These stairs can be a practice area for you and the baby while ensuring that your baby is still safe.
4. Teach Your Baby The Appropriate Places To Climb
While you should encourage your child to get on the floor and explore the environment, some areas are off-limits, like the toilet, bookshelf, table. Always remove your baby from these places.
Explain to the child that the furniture, bookshelf, table, and others are not safe for climbing. Your child will get the message and know that these paces are off-limits with time. Other precautions to take are
To Encourage Your Child To Crawl
- Crawl Safely
- check out the environment for any sharp or dangerous objects on the floor before placing your child on the floor.
- Lock cabinets, doors, windows, and any place you know your child can go to that is harmful.
Crawling Styles
If you are looking for ways on how to encourage your baby to crawl, here are different crawling styles that you can utilize to encourage your baby to crawl.
Let’s check them out.
1. Commando crawl or belly crawl. Here the baby’s stomach and legs are on the floor while he pulls himself with his arms.
2. The Scoot. The baby slides his bum on the floor, with the legs helping push her forward.
3. The classic crawl. The baby rests on the hands and legs, uses the belly to push upwards, and moves by alternating the hands and legs.
4. The roll. Your baby moves back and forth in the rocking motion trying to crawl.
5. The tripod crawl. The baby is on all fours but moves with two hands and one knee.
6. To push herself backward or sideways instead of forward.
What If Your Baby Is A Late Crawler?
You may be worried if your baby has passed nine months and has not started crawling yet. Well, it may interest you to know that not all babies crawl before they walk, so you may just be getting yourself worked up for nothing.
As long as your baby shows some pre-crawling signs like rocking back and forth, reaching out to grasp things, sitting erect.
But if your baby doesn’t show any of these signs and other developmental milestones like making sounds, lack of development of motor skills, poor growth, inability to use both sides of the body, these signs are something to worry about, and you should see your doctor.
Let’s discuss below 10 steps to follow through to encourage your baby to crawl.
1. Give The Baby Plenty Of Tummy Time
One of the best to steps to follow when encouraging your baby to crawl is tummy time; you can start tummy time from 3 months upwards.
It is best to start tummy time, first thing in the morning if the child is not cranky or hungry and relaxed. Tummy time will help strengthen the baby’s arms and legs muscles back and neck muscles.
When these muscles are strengthened, it will help your baby crawl faster. Your baby may not be comfortable with tummy at the beginning, so do not go so hard on your baby. Instead, do it slowly, till he is used to it.
You should do tummy time in a comfortable space like your baby’s nursery or at home. Ensure there is plenty of room in the area where you intend to do tummy time, and it is free from any harmful objects.
Tummy time should be regular as a way of encouraging your baby to crawl. 3-4 sets of tummy time a day is okay for newborns for 3-5 minutes a day.
From 3 months, it can increase to 15 minutes a day, and for six months old for 20 to 30 minutes. Tummy time is best done for infants on the bed or on your lap; this is both bonding and tummy time.
To give tummy time on the floor, lay a clean and warm towel or do it on the bed. While your baby is doing tummy time, encourage your baby by putting toys around, cheering him up, and singing along.
Not all babies enjoy tummy time, so put a pillow and prop him up so that he elevates his neck and chest, put toys around him to grab his attention, use a floor mirror.
When the baby sees his reflection, he may want to start crawling. Sing and dance to make this a fun activity and make your baby interested. Try doing all these until the baby gets used to tummy time.
2. Encourage Play That Elevates Your Baby
This would help strengthen the baby’s muscles. While doing tummy time, try to keep the arms raised. You can do this by lying the baby flat on the bed but resting the arms on a breastfeeding pillow to elevate the arms.
You also help him put his hands on elevated objects like tables, chairs, countertops, etc. Or, can help the baby elevate and stretch the hands above the head by giving the baby toys to reach out from them.
When he almost takes it, stretch your hands a bit farther. Your baby will again try to reach the toy by stretching. Doing this can help your baby’s hand muscles stretch, enabling him to crawl when the time is right.
3. Lift The Baby Off The Floor
Let your baby get used to his weight so periodically, lift him slightly off the floor. Place your palm on the tummy or chest and support the baby by holding the butt area.
Gently but firmly pick the baby up. Raise him for a few minutes and drop him down. While doing this, do not raise the baby so high that his feet leave the ground.
This way, the baby bears his weight slightly and since the baby is used to bearing his weight when he starts crawling, it won’t be so hard for him. This exercise will be also helpful for a baby when he begins to walk.
4. Mirror Play
Putting your baby to play in front of a mirror is how to encourage your baby to crawl. As the baby sees his reflection in the mirror, he becomes curious and wants to check himself out.
This would make the child unconsciously push himself up to stand as he looks at the mirror.
Repeating this exercise will help spur your baby to start crawling fast because it strengthens the arms and legs. You can also stack toys high up to catch the baby’s attention. If you do not want to use the mirror
5. Use Toys As Motivators
Using suitable toys to catch your baby’s attention is how to encourage a baby to start crawling. I did this a lot with my baby. Children are easily motivated by what they like.
I would place colorful and attractive toys in different places, like the bed, carpet, playmat, etc., to get my baby’s attention.
Immediately he notices a colorful toy, and he stops playing with the one he already has and tries to reach out for it. As he starts moving, he keeps pushing himself forward, strengthening and stretching the muscles for crawling.
To use toys as motivation for crawling, you can place your baby on all fours (for tummy time) and place toys that your baby can reach out for or put your baby in a sitting position and scatter different toys around him.
The toys should not be too close to the child to stretch the hands to grasp them. You can also dangle a toy in front of your child, so he tries to grab them.
These exercises will helps spur the child to stretch and crawl. Note: do not place the toys too far such that it becomes so difficult for your baby to reach them and your baby becomes frustrated.
6. Limit The Use Of Supportive Devices
Your baby’s rockers, strollers, etc. are essential to provide comfort for the baby, but since you are trying ways on how to encourage your baby to crawl, you need not use them too often now because they can restrict the strengthening and development of your baby’s muscles.
In high chairs and strollers, your baby is comfortable; there is minimized muscle activity, hence the need to limit their use at this time.
Strollers and other supportive devices also lead to delayed muscular development and they limit the need for exploration by the child.
7. Place Your Baby On All Four (Crawling Position)
Making your baby practice crawling is how to encourage your baby to crawl. To do this for young infants of about 1, 2, or 3 months, support the baby in a crawling position.
Lie the baby flat in the stomach first, then support your baby’s weight from the head and the bottom. Next, allow the baby’s arms and legs to touch the ground.
They start getting used to the correct position for crawling and feel the movement after crawling.
For older babies, you can place them into a crawling position and while you still support them, encourage them with toys, mirrors, or anything that can catch their attention to stimulate them to crawl while they are in the crawling position.
8. Get On The Floor And Crawl
You are going to be the best person your little one will want to imitate when you get on all fours and crawl with your baby. So how to encourage your baby to crawl is by you kneeling on the ground and crawling yourself.
Do this and have fun with your infant. Soon, your baby will want to imitate what you do. Your older kids can also be part of this.
Please encourage them to do a crawling race while on the floor, and as your infant watches them, he too will become interested in crawling.
Getting on all fours with your baby will also make the child feel more comfortable while on the floor.
While you try to position your baby in the crawling position or use toys as motivation, your baby may not know what to do until he watches what and how you or the older kids are crawling; then, he knows what to imitate.
You can also make your child learn to crawl when you meet up with other moms with kids and babies for play. When older babies crawl around, or toddlers imitate crawling for fun, your baby can watch and learn how to crawl.
9. Do Not Push Your Baby Too Hard
I get that you want to do your best to help stimulate your baby’s muscles and set the baby in the right tone for crawling, but while doing this, do not push your baby so hard.
While making your baby crawl, have pictures of fun in mind, so try to make it fun whatever you do. Also, be patient; some babies may not enjoy the whole exercise thing.
Know when to encourage your baby to crawl and when to stop if the baby is frustrated.
Signs you should note when to stop any activity that spurs crawling: when your baby cries uncontrollably, he is hot, irritated/cranky, no longer interested in the toys or whatever you do to get him to crawl.
If your baby does any of these, you should call it off. Calm your baby by rocking him, placing the child on your back, bathing the child, feeding the baby, and trying to get the baby to sleep after that because he has done some acting and he needs to rest.
Knowing when to stop when encouraging your baby to crawl is essential because it makes the whole process of teaching the baby how to crawl positive.
Suppose the baby is always frustrated each time you try to make him crawl, he may develop negative emotions about crawling, and this may counter whatever good you are trying to do.
Stop crawling exercises when the baby is cranky, frustrated, and not enjoying it, be patient while doing crawling practice, make it fun and affectionate bonding time.
The baby associates positive emotions with crawling and this is how to encourage your baby to crawl.
10. Massage
Massaging helps to keep the baby’s muscles, more flexible and strengthened You can do this first thing in the morning when the baby wakes up. Start with a tickle, then gently but firmly massage the arms, palm, toes, feet, etc.
You can also do a massage after bath time at night because the massage helps you feel so calm and relaxed and sleep easily. You can also massage the baby with clothes on or with diapers.
Making use of lightly scented oils while massaging your baby, will help reduce friction and make massaging easier. Go gently, apply some force but not too much force, or you may hurt the baby rather than help baby.
Massage is beneficial in many other ways. It helps to reduce colic in infant colic, helps promote a healthy immune system, helps to stimulate blood circulation, helps the baby’s sensitivity and awareness to touch, positioning and movement.
It also creates a strong mother-child bond between you and your infant.
Conclusion
Development is a never ending saga for babies, so take your time to be a part of that process. The following tips will surely help encourage your baby to crawl, so you should try them.
I have stated some signs to watch out for when your baby is ready to crawl in the article here. if by the ideal age, your baby is not showing any signs of development associated with crawling, please ensure to visit a doctor.
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